There’s No?Way Around It,?California. You Owe Descendants of?Enslaved?Black?Americans?

By Hardy Brown?| Founder, California Black Media?? Special to?California?Black Media Partners? 

Last year, I read a book titled?“The?Color of Law.”?Every Californian?should read it,?too?— especially if you truly care about Black lives.?? 

“A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America,” the book subtitle?reads.?It is written by?Richard?Rothstein, a fellow at the Haas Institute?in Berkeley. 

I’ve made a note to myself to write the publisher. I’ll ask?them to swap the word “forgotten”?in the subtitle?with “un-acknowledged.” That switch in the book’s name would reflect just?how little most of us?Californians?really know?about our shared American?and?state?history, and the state created discrimination African Americans have endured. Black people suffering is central to our collective American story.  

I was?convinced of this when some?tone-deaf?comments?a handful of elected officials?made?about African Americans and?Affirmative Action?reached?my ears.?The?lawmakers going around bandying those hurtful, racially-coded and untrue opinions, so far, have been?mostly?White and Asian American politicians?who are opposed to?Assembly Constitution Amendment (ACA)?5, not realizing the benefits they themselves have gained from Affirmative Action programs.? 

They?repeat?that?worn-out,?beat-up and shortsighted?line you’ve heard too many times. Any?policy?in California, they argue,?that?would consider?race in college admissions, employment or contracting?is?itself racist,?and?it?would, by design,?reward?benefits to?people who don’t deserve?them?based on?nothing more than the color of?their skin.?? 

That’s where their?argument falls short.?Yes,?Affirmative Action is?about race but it is also about?much more?than?skin color. 

It?is?about?deplorable?current?circumstances?that?grew?directly?out of specific historical experiences. It is?about equaling?opportunity for?descendants of?enslaved Africans?in the United States?who were denied access to full citizenship rights?both?by law?and custom.?It is about compensation for?unpaid labor and?explicit?discriminatory anti-Black,?anti-former slave?laws cooked up?for nearly four centuries?in city halls and?state Capitols?across?this great?country,?including Sacramento.?? 

If?the Assembly and Senate vote yes on?ACA 5, the measure will appear on the California ballot in November. If?voters approve?ACA?5, it will?once again make?it?legal in California to?consider race in public employment, education, contracting and even in state data reporting.?? 

“The Color of Law”?documents?in clear?and unsparing?detail?how?city councils, state legislatures and the federal government?crafted?law?after?racist?law,?and?adapted other?public policies?with built-in?racial?biases. These?policies?were created to intentionally exclude Africans and rob them of economic opportunity afforded others?for centuries.?? 

This is not make-believe.?This troubling history?is all documented.?? 

Those same governments,?here in California and around the country,?extended hand-up?after hand-up,?using all of our tax dollars,?exclusively to?White Americans. These targeted?economic programs?improved the financial standing of?millions of White Americans?and?contributed?to the?establishment?of a strong?and?expansive?White?middle class in the country by the 1950s.?Some of those?same?policies,?way too?many to?list here,?also?contributed to the?geographical?segregation, by race?and?rail track, that persists in our cities and towns?across?the country.? 

And, no,?“The Color of Law”?is not?only?about states?located?below the?Mason-Dixon Line in?the old?Confederate?South?—?that?all-too-notorious region of?our country?where?slavery’s?most?infamous?profiteers?and their surrogates?degraded, beat?and slaughtered?African Americans?while?whole families of us toiled in the fields?without pay for?centuries?harvesting?tobacco, cotton and?rice.?? 

“The Color of Law”?also?includes numerous examples of racist?legislation?right here?in California.  

Our state?and its cities and towns?—?from our founding in?1850 to?the minute you’re reading this sentence —?have passed?minor?local?ordinances?and?sweeping?state laws?on everything from?public housing to the War on Drugs that have negatively impacted?the pockets and peace of?Black Americans.?? 

In fact, so many of our cities created adjacent “unincorporated areas” where a majority of African Americans lived and received no municipal services for their tax dollars.  

Today, African American?Californians?have the?least?household income?and wealth among all other races, including?many new?immigrants,?who have come and joined our multiracial American family, and?benefited from the civil rights advances Blacks have?shed blood and died?to?make available to all?in this country?and state.?? 

Our children perform the worst on the state’s standardized tests among their peers of other races and ethnicities.?We are arrested,?convicted?and?sentenced to prison more than any other group in California, and we make up the?lion’s share of the state’s?homeless population.?? 

By every study, we are stigmatized, racially profiled and discriminated against the most. This happens in every arena from hiring?and?hairstyles to apartment hunting?and?home buying.?? 

In our UC and CSU schools, African American college students are the only group whose percentage?of students enrolled is less than our representation in the state’s population.?? 

Yet, so many of our fellow Californians of other races deny the impact?state-created, sanctioned?and?implemented anti-Black?policies have?had on our lives and living conditions.?? 

By?the time I got to the?last page?of??“The Color of Law,” ?I?can’t?say the book opened my eyes?to the?brutal?history of anti-Blackness,?enforced?segregation, and legalized discrimination?in California and around this country.?I was born?and raised?in Jim Crow America?in a former slaveholding state, North Carolina,?where?local?elected officials always?kept?steps ahead?of the federal government,?rolling out their?own?counterforce laws?to pull back on?any?national?legislation that?attempted to advance?the rights?of?the descendants of slaves.?I have?plenty of anecdotal evidence.?? 

The book did supply, however, a trove of concrete examples?that confirm just how deliberate,?deep-seated and un-American those policies that excluded African Americans?for centuries have been.?? 

So how can?some of?our fellow Californians turn a blind eye to our state?and country’s?role in contributing to the?desperate?and disparate?conditions from which Black Californians have yet to recover?  

This week, as our state’s lawmakers of all races and backgrounds prepare their hearts and hands to vote on ACA 5 in our state legislature, I urge each one of you to take an honest look at the cruel under-told and understudied history of American policies that have negatively contributed to the current economic and social conditions of Blacks here in California and across the United States. 

I ask each one of you to pose some questions to yourself: Why do we keep confronting the same untreated racial problems decade after decade in our beloved Golden State? Why does it take the violent beating or murder of a Rodney King, Tyisha Miller, Oscar Grant, Stephon Clark or George Floyd to shock us out of our complacency? Why don’t we seek lasting solutions from the same hallowed chambers of representative government that have for centuries now too often been the birthplace of policies that have limited the rights of Blacks as Californians and American citizens.